In 2002, the Princes of Florence tournament expanded
with the addition of a third preliminary heat. This added some
excitement since one win did not guarantee advancement to the
25-player semifinal round; this became a very real possibility
as there were 19 different winners in the first two heats. In
the third and final preliminary heat, many winners in earlier
heats opted not to rest on their laurels and tried to improve
their positions for the semifinals. When the dust had cleared,
there were five more repeat winners which meant all winners and
a few highly placed runnerups advanced. All preliminary round
encounters (as well as the semifinal and final games) were five-player
contests.

In
the first day of preliminary round play, nine winners were paced
by defending champ Arthur Field whose 71-point score and 15-point
margin of victory was the best of the round. In the second heat,
Arthur's score was topped by Harold Siegelman, who won by 23
points with a score of 75, both of which were high marks for
the tournament. There were 11 games in the second heat, which
saw 55 players competing at once in the high-water mark for participation.
Doug Mercer won matches in both the first and second heat, and
after the third heat, he was joined by Arthur, Harold, Ewan McNay,
David Platnick and Bruce Bernard as the only players to win two
preliminary games. David's score of 69 (with a 14-point margin
of victory) topped the final preliminary heat which again saw
nine games being contested. Last year's runnerup, Doug Smith,
qualified for the semifinals with a convincing win in the final
heat of qualifying after finishing second to Ewan in an earlier
heat.

High scorer in the five semifinal games was Arthur Field,
the defending champion, whose 64 bested Stan Hilinski by five
points, with Sandy Wible a close third. David Platnick, who,
like Arthur, used recruiting cards to produce a total of six
works, advanced with a score of 63, good for a seven-point win
over Scott Pfeiffer. Doug Smith earned a return trip to the finals
when his score of 62 beat Tamara McGraw by seven points. Tamara's
second place in the semifinals was the best by any alternate,
bettering her earlier results in the preliminary round. The remaining
two semifinal games were hotly contested and went down to the
wire. Davyd Field produced only four works but two prestige cards
enabled him to triumph by five, 60 to 55, over Harold Siegelman
and Dan Hoffman (Harold edged Dan for second on the most florins
tiebreak). The closest semifinal finish was a one-point win by
Doug Kaufman over Anne Norton, 55 to 54, with Doug producing
six works to Anne's five. Davyd, Doug and Anne (who was awarded
sixth place for the closest second-place finisher in the semifinals)
all scored points for their respective teams.

The final pitted son versus father; last year's champion against
last year's runner-up; and two finalists seeking to score more
points for their respective teams. Arthur Field, the defending
champion, bought two jesters for 900 each and two recruiting
cards for 800 and 600 with the intention of scoring points for
a high number of works. This strategy had worked well for Arthur
in last year's final and in this year's semifinals. Doug Smith
used a low-cost building and prestige card strategy, offsetting
the fact that he would produce fewer works. The game came down
to the final turn, with Doug Kaufman being forced to lose six
precious prestige points after an expensive bidding war with
Arthur over a forest. Three players (Davyd Field, David Platnick
and Doug Smith) were unable to play all profession cards as works.
Arthur, who won for the second year in a row, benefitted from
these miscues as he was the only player able to produce six works,
as planned. Davyd, who finished second, later observed that he
missed a golden opportunity to seal a likely win by a different
bonus card play in the sixth round which could have given him
three more victory points relative to his father. While the father-son
duo finished one-two, Doug Smith's performance of finishing only
four points in arrears with only three of his four works being
produced is a noteworthy achievement, showing there are multiple
strategies that can be competitive. Doug Kaufman edged David
Platnick for the fourth spot.

Statistics collected from
35 games in this year's tournament showed a distinct advantage
for the first three seats, in particular the number 2 seat which
won 13 games with an average score of 55.4 points;
by contrast, players in the fourth and fifth seats collectively
won just six games, and the fourth seat had the lowest scoring
average of 50.94. Over 60% of the game winners played six or
more works, but two games were won with only four works produced.
Bidding statistics showed that jesters, recruiters and builders
were once again the most popular items, going for an average
of between 400 and 700 florins, depending on which turn (higher
prices earlier in the game). As last year, the 25
semifinalists were asked to vote on whether POF should remain
a "B" event or not; this year an overwhelming majority
voted in favor of continuing the "beginner's welcome"
status.